In the piece she writes, “Make it a habit to routinely send updates to your boss, such as weekly emails. Anticipate questions she might ask. Organize regular meetings designed to keep your questioning boss in the loop.”

2. Stay focused. Sure, your manager may ask questions or bring up topics that are irrelevant to your work but redirect the focus on the task at hand. When he asks if morale would increase if the office provided bagels every Friday morning, you can respond to get back on point by saying something like, “That’d be interesting. Speaking of interesting, what do you think of the story ideas I sent you last night?”

3. Force a “mind chuckle.” Go ahead, laugh things off. In your mind, that is. Humor can help decrease stress you’re experiencing and make the situation feel a lot lighter. In fact, Taylor recommends keeping track of the number of legitimate questions you get asked on a daily basis by your boss compared to the unanswerable ones.